طريقة عمل مسقعة الباذنجان

المكونات

تحضير اللحم المفروم

تحضير الصلصة

٣-٤ ملاعق كبيرة معجون طماطم

٢ ملاعق كبيرة دبس رمان

١ ملعقة كبيرة مركز تمر هندي

ملح وفلفل

٧٠٠ مل ماء ساخن

Mousakka is world known for its Greek version which is basically fried eggplant slices, minced beef and a layer of béchamel. In the Levant area, Mousakka is made without the béchamel. Eggplant slices, minced beef and a sauce. And yet we have many versions. Today I am sharing my version, the one we make at my house, the one me and my family love.
First of all use good quality eggplants. There is no use going through the whole recipe and pouring your heart out only to use bitter eggplants. It will ruin the whole dish and then you'll blame the recipe :) If you don't know how to choose your eggplants ask the grocer, he will help you.
Today we will be adding potatoes to the Mousakka. The reason I experimented with potatoes was because half of my kids don't like eggplant and the other half love it. So I had to find middle ground so we can have this delicious dish together as a family. Turns out, potato is delicious. So you have the options to try it out or remove it from your recipe altogether.
Traditional Mousakka is made with a tomato paste base sauce. I, on the other hand, love my Mousakka to be slightly sweet and sour. For this reason I add some pomegranate molasses and a touch of Tamarind Concentrate. Feel free to use what you like and remove what you don't.

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggplants
• 3 large potatoes
• 1 large onion
• 5-6 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup canned chickpeas
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 large bell pepper
• green chilies

• 400 grams minced beef
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

• 3-4 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
• 1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate
• Salt and pepper
• 700 ml hot water

Drizzle of olive oil
*Start by roasting the eggplant slices in the oven with a sprinkle of salt and a generous drizzle of olive or vegetable oil. Do the same with the potato slices. Make sure you use a non stick pan, otherwise you lose half the potato sticking to the pan. Of course you can easily fry these and forget about roasting. But for me it is easier, less messy and healthier, why wouldn't I?
*While they are in the oven roasting, cook your beef. Sauté the onion in some vegetable oil until translucent. Add the minced beef and cook until it changes color while mixing. Add the spices and continue until fully cooked.
*Make the sauce by mixing all the ingredients together and set aside. As I mentioned earlier, if you do not want to use molasses and tamarind or you can't find them just leave them out. Add a teaspoon of sugar to balance out the tomato flavor.
*Now we assemble: In the oven dish, layer the eggplant slices and then the potato slices if you're using any.
*Cover them with a layer of minced beef. Top that with the garlic slices and the chickpeas.

*Layer the onion slices, the tomato slices and the bell pepper slices on top. Add whole green chilies if you like them.
*Pour the sauce we made earlier and make sure you cover everything.
*Cover the oven dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and cook for another 30 minutes until the top is nice and golden and the sauce is thick and boiling. Once the Mousakka is cooked it will lose some of the sauce to the cooking process and some because we uncovered it in the oven, if you wish to have more resulting sauce add more liquid to the sauce before putting it in the oven.
*That's our Mousakka ready and delicious, served with rice or bread, enjoy!